Letter Gives Glimpse of Al-Qaeda's Leadership (WaPo)

[Eugene]

To be taken with a grain of salt but still interesting.

Letter Gives Glimpse of Al-Qaeda's Leadership
Letter Shows Worry Over Iraq Infighting

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 2, 2006; Page A01

Six months before the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in June, a senior
al-Qaeda figure warned him in a letter that he risked removal as
al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq if he continued to alienate Sunni tribal and
religious leaders and rival insurgent groups.

The author of the Dec. 11 letter, who said he was writing from al-Qaeda
headquarters in the Waziristan region of Pakistan, was a member of Osama
bin Laden's high command who signed himself "Atiyah." The military's
Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, which last week released a
15-page English translation of the Arabic document made public in Iraq,
said his real identity was "unknown."

-snip-

The letter, the first document to emerge from what the military described
as a "treasure trove" of information uncovered from Iraqi safe houses
at the time of Zarqawi's death, provides new details of a debilitated
al-Qaeda leadership-in-hiding, locating it in Waziristan.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/01/AR2006100101083.html

Related Summary: Al-Qaeda HQ 'based in Pakistan' - BBC